The present invention relates generally to the field network applications within a communications network, and more particularly to computing devices that can manage multiple network functions from various network applications on a user-interface display.
Communications networks function to establish a temporary electronic communication channel between a caller and a called party. Typically, the communication channel carries network traffic, which transports information communicated by the parties. Network traffic may take the form of electronic signals carrying actual vocal communication between users, as well as data among distributed computing systems (e.g., financial transactions, facsimile signals, Internet “surfing,” e-mail exchanges, network housekeeping, and the like).
Further, network traffic varies over time, date, and locality according to usage factors. However, economics prohibit communications networks from providing sufficient capacity for high peaks (i.e., multiple parties trying to access the network) in these network traffic fluctuations as this amount of capacity would be idle much of the time, constituting a wasted investment. Accordingly, operators of communications networks strive to make the best use of communications network resources balancing available capacity with the present load of network traffic.
In order to carry out balancing capacity and load, operators of communications networks must monitor network traffic and the resources consumed thereby. Additionally, operators must monitor a large array of data to accurately diagnose and correct any issues negatively impacting the communications. Thus, a method for presenting a large amount of diverse data to an operator, where the data is continuously refreshed based on network traffic, would be helpful to identify these issues.